Benefit
Bluelighter
There has never been a more perfect actor to play the part of an alien disguised as a human than David Bowie. His ghoulish, pasty face that belies a subtle charm is just right. Acting-wise, he is fantastic blowing veteran actor Rip Torn out of the water with his performance. After seeing Bowie in Labyrinth I wrote him off as an actor, but this film completely changed my opinion of Bowie the actor and Bowie the performer, entertainer and artist.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, The Man Who Fell to Earth is based on a 1963 novel of the same name and treats the story of an alien who crash lands on Earth. Thomas Newton’s (Bowie) mission is not explicitly articulated in the film, but we are informed by a series of floating, dreamy flashbacks that he left his wife and kids on his home world which has been ravaged by a catastrophic drought, and came to Earth to either find a safe haven for his family or to bring water back. He spends much of the film greedily slurping water. To accomplish his goal, he patents 9 advanced technologies and overnight creates a huge corporate conglomerate, hoarding the money to build a space ship.
Roeg’s largely English production crew bring some strong European sensibilities to the film, particularly an abundance of nudity including Rip Torn and David Bowie’s penises (though I think Bowie’s might be a body double), and an emphasis on overt sexuality and graphic bodily functions – when Mary Lou finds out Bowie is an alien there is a scene where urine cascades down her inner thigh. Predictably, this caused about 20 minutes worth of cuts in the American release that no doubt made the film even less comprehensible to American audiences then it already was. As a result of its participation in this film, Rip Torn's penis was given a Special Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy and forced into mandatory, irreversible retirement.
The movie’s main plot elements are pretty straightforward but the exposition is not laid out in a clear cut way; Roeg fills the film with Russian-style symbolism and surreal image montages that strongly recall Tarkovsky, and often expects the audience to make certain connections and tie together plot points that are intentionally left murky. For instance, how does the government know Newton is an alien and why do they capture him? Why is Rip Torn even in this movie? Is it even the government that is behind this? Sometimes the film, made by Europeans with an outsiders perspective on the inner workings of America, runs the very real risk of alienating its audience too far with its floating narrative strands (Newton, ageless, is contrasted with all the other major characters who go through the natural convolutions of human aging), where the time period of the film’s setting is never clearly defined for us and the passage of time is an abstraction.
The film benefits from a wry sense of humor, some great visuals and insightful commentary on American society and human nature and the way people use alcohol, religion, money, success and sex as crutches. But the thing that most distinguishes this movie as an overlooked classic is David Bowie’s masterful performance. It is, if you'll excuse the pun, out of this world.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, The Man Who Fell to Earth is based on a 1963 novel of the same name and treats the story of an alien who crash lands on Earth. Thomas Newton’s (Bowie) mission is not explicitly articulated in the film, but we are informed by a series of floating, dreamy flashbacks that he left his wife and kids on his home world which has been ravaged by a catastrophic drought, and came to Earth to either find a safe haven for his family or to bring water back. He spends much of the film greedily slurping water. To accomplish his goal, he patents 9 advanced technologies and overnight creates a huge corporate conglomerate, hoarding the money to build a space ship.
NSFW:
Roeg’s largely English production crew bring some strong European sensibilities to the film, particularly an abundance of nudity including Rip Torn and David Bowie’s penises (though I think Bowie’s might be a body double), and an emphasis on overt sexuality and graphic bodily functions – when Mary Lou finds out Bowie is an alien there is a scene where urine cascades down her inner thigh. Predictably, this caused about 20 minutes worth of cuts in the American release that no doubt made the film even less comprehensible to American audiences then it already was. As a result of its participation in this film, Rip Torn's penis was given a Special Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy and forced into mandatory, irreversible retirement.
The movie’s main plot elements are pretty straightforward but the exposition is not laid out in a clear cut way; Roeg fills the film with Russian-style symbolism and surreal image montages that strongly recall Tarkovsky, and often expects the audience to make certain connections and tie together plot points that are intentionally left murky. For instance, how does the government know Newton is an alien and why do they capture him? Why is Rip Torn even in this movie? Is it even the government that is behind this? Sometimes the film, made by Europeans with an outsiders perspective on the inner workings of America, runs the very real risk of alienating its audience too far with its floating narrative strands (Newton, ageless, is contrasted with all the other major characters who go through the natural convolutions of human aging), where the time period of the film’s setting is never clearly defined for us and the passage of time is an abstraction.
The film benefits from a wry sense of humor, some great visuals and insightful commentary on American society and human nature and the way people use alcohol, religion, money, success and sex as crutches. But the thing that most distinguishes this movie as an overlooked classic is David Bowie’s masterful performance. It is, if you'll excuse the pun, out of this world.
